NPD Group: Grooming tool sales down 2% since last year

Warrior Poets

A scene from Morgan Spurlock's film "Mansome" that explores the world of men's grooming. According to a survey by NPD Group, the sale of grooming tools is down 2% to $1.1 billion for the 12 months ended May 2013.

A scene from Morgan Spurlock's film "Mansome" that explores the world of men's grooming. According to a survey by NPD Group, the sale of grooming tools is down 2% to $1.1 billion for the 12 months ended May 2013. (Warrior Poets)

Sales of grooming tools totaled $1.1 billion for the 12-month period ending in May, according to Port Washington, N.Y.-based NPD Group, a decline of 2% from the same period a year ago.

But this doesn't necessarily foreshadow an escape from the manscape landscape; the market research firm notes that the slight drop comes on the heels of a 7% increase in sales of grooming tools the year before that.

"Grooming trends are a reflection of personal style, celebrity influence, and today’s perception of what is attractive, and sales of grooming tools often follow suit," said Debra Mednick, executive director and home industry analyst, in the announcement. “Men are still trimming those beards that were so prevalent on the red carpet earlier this year, and women are playing a role when it comes to purchasing the tools.”

In fact, when it comes to dollar sales, women account for 34% of the men's grooming tool market (by comparison, men account for about 20% of sales in the women's grooming appliance arena).

The most surprising part of the NPD Group's Consumer Tracking Service survey was this mention of the huge disparity between the spending habits of men and women: "Sales of grooming appliances typically used by men, such as electric shavers, trimmers, and home hair clippers," the survey said, "are more than 10 times the size of the women’s market."